I DOSED PHOSPHATE!!!

[Pagey]

this is what I have. noticeable cyano with undetectable nitrate and almost undetectable phos ( .002 ). bit of a pain, need to get around to reducing my pellet load.

Very interesting. So this is predicated on the pellets releasing carbon into the tank creating favourable conditions for the Cyano? And that would be because the pellets in the reactor are not being used efficiently because there is too small a bio load for the amount of pellets in the reactor?

I wish they would quote pellet volumes based on feeding schedule like they do with algae turf scrubbers! So perhaps one of my issues is volume of bio pellets? I may actually have too much in my reactor?

edit* I also just moved my reactor and skimmer to a section of the sump with less flow. Hopefully that means more of the effluent makes it into the skimmer. I did have it plumbed in pretty well previously but it was about 10cm away from where the drain lands so there was quite a bit of flow there. It is now as far from that area as possible, hopefully it makes a difference. Here are some pics of the current setup.

[Brett240]

quote]


Very interesting. So this is predicated on the pellets releasing carbon into the tank creating favourable conditions for the Cyano? And that would be because the pellets in the reactor are not being used efficiently because there is too small a bio load for the amount of pellets in the reactor?

I don't know why too many pellets causes this, would sure like the answer.

I don't think its carbon, the carbon is locked up in the pellet until its consumed by heterotrophic bacteria. you'd think the bacteria population would self regulate based on the available Nitrate and phosphate. maybe it doesn't and too many pellets causes excess bacterial slough and subsequent cyano explosion? I don't know.

I stupidly added pellets a couple of months ago when everything was running just fine and got a cyano explosion after a couple of weeks. have since reduced the pellets, still have a bit of cyano. think I can reduce pellets more and still have very low Nitrate and phos levels. have to get around to it.

[Tone]

I assume that when talking of "pellets" you are referring to activated carbon. Usually we refer to bioplastic as pellets. None the less, the N that feeds the cyano doesn't come from a release of the "pellets", rather the cyano itself 'fixes' N and the source is maintained.
http://netclub.athiel.com/cyano/cyanos2.htm

[Brett240]

No not activated carbon, not part of the conversation.

The biopellets are a carbon (C) source.

N feeds cyano sure, so the head scratching is why excess pellets cause a cyano outbreak when there's stuff all available N for uptake.

[Pagey]

I assume that when talking of "pellets" you are referring to activated carbon. Usually we refer to bioplastic as pellets. None the less, the N that feeds the cyano doesn't come from a release of the "pellets", rather the cyano itself 'fixes' N and the source is maintained.
http://netclub.athiel.com/cyano/cyanos2.htm

Yeah sorry Tone I could have been more clear. The pellets I am talking about are indeed bio plastics.

And by way of an update GET THIS!

I have dumped in 90ml steadily since Monday last week so it has been exactly a week now. This is exactly what I calculated I would need to raise my Phos to 0.3125ppm to balance out the 5ppm Nitrate.
Well I am both encouraged and discouraged.
Firstly I still have Nitrates. They are now down to 2.5ppm MAX and the coulour could be closer to 1ppm so I would say my Nitrates are somewhere between 1 & 2.5ppm.
In encouraging news I have been fearful dosing so much Phos into my tank and have been watching my rocks like a hawk. One rock is showing some signs of algae but others are completely fine!!! So encouraging!!
Lastly my Yellow coral has not yet coloured up but it has only been one week and to be fair the Nitrates only really started dropping late in the week so I am looking for some opinions.

With a feeding schedule as follows;
Amino Acids - Continuum Phyto Blast - Continuum Zoo Blast - Target feed with Cyclops (which ends up circulating in the tank somewhat although I do feed with zero current to allow target corals time to consume)

So with all of the above once per week shall I attempt to reduce Nitrates further? I suppose the answer will be to do things slowly and adjust if I am not seeing benefits but I could use a few opinions so I get an idea.

Cheers!!

This is the rock that has a touch of algae appearing..



And the others are not really showing any signs which is good!

[afhtan]

How are you dosing the phosphates?

I wonder if it will work better if you dose directly into the biopellet reactor as algae or the rock in the tank could be taking in extra phosphates.

[Pagey]

How are you dosing the phosphates?

I wonder if it will work better if you dose directly into the biopellet reactor as algae or the rock in the tank could be taking in extra phosphates.

That is a great point afhtan and if there is any truth to the ratio then either I have high phos or something else is eating it up..!
I am using Seachem Flourish Phosphorus. It is a 4,500ppm solution of phosphate and so far I have thrown in 90ml into a 1300L system.
I have to note that I have over the last few days seen a reduction in NO3. Perhaps the pellets were a little slow on the uptake? Either way after having NO3 firmly stuck at around 5ppm and possibly upwards I am now down around 1-2.5ppm. I believe the experiment has been a success!! Now to watch the yellow coral for improvements in colour..

Nothing to note at this time.

[afhtan]

I was going to dose phosphate to my tank based on the redfield ratio as well as I was at 75ppm nitrate and 0.30ppm phosphate.

In the last week since I have been running a recirculating reactor seeded with Bacter Gen MD, the nitrate dropped to 5ppm and phosphate is at 0.11ppm. So either something is leaching more phosphate that I am not picking up in the test or the biopellets are consuming a lot more nitrate than phosphate than the 16:1 ratio.

[Pagey]

I was going to dose phosphate to my tank based on the redfield ratio as well as I was at 75ppm nitrate and 0.30ppm phosphate.

In the last week since I have been running a recirculating reactor seeded with Bacter Gen MD, the nitrate dropped to 5ppm and phosphate is at 0.11ppm. So either something is leaching more phosphate that I am not picking up in the test or the biopellets are consuming a lot more nitrate than phosphate than the 16:1 ratio.

Well the reactor certainly seems to be helping. Perhaps if you run a small dose of phos removing media with it? That was my plan. If ever my balance was off I was going to use Phos limit my tank using removal media and then once I had Nitrates above the balance I was going to start a controlled Phos dosing schedule to bring the balance back.

And to that end...... here is a MAJOR update.

So I honestly thought it would happen quicker but clearly I was wrong. I calculated that I needed about 83ml of Seachem Phosphate to bring my Phos level up to even with my (What I was testing as) approx 5ppm Nitrate. Now I must say some days were worse than others. Some days the test kit looked like it was reading 10ppm which is the next colour threshold. It was often hard to tell but I went on the safe side and calculated what I needed for 5ppm - 83ml ish.

Dosed as follows;

10ml 30th May
10ml 31st
20ml 2nd June
20ml 3rd June (at this time Nitrate had not budged - still 5-10ppm)
30ml 4th June **into my ATO this time** so this was dosed over the following two days.
None 6th June because I tested NO3 at 2.5-5ppm this time round. This was the first sign of a reduction and I wanted to see where it would settle.
Tested again on 8th June - this time 1-2.5ppm!!
Tested again tonight 9th June - Undetectable......

So I am thinking it is time to get to feeding a lot of fish food I suppose..... AND it looks like the bacteria just had to ramp up, now they've ramped up and the Phos in the water has led to a close to zero nitrate reading!!!
If I start to see the corals fade out I will take my pellets off line for a while but for now I think I have confirmed that my tank was Phos limited, now to see if I can keep the corals alive through this..

[Pagey]

Figured I would do a quick update.

Bit of cyano hanging on but it's struggling big time!

Corals are beginning to pale out a bit but I am keeping an eye on them. It's the browned out monti that is starting to pale out so hopefully it's going to start colouring up. If it continues this way I will take the pellets offline for a while. I am still feeding the fish as much as they will eat. Nitrate still not detectable! Hopefully the corals begin to settle into the new norm.

Here is a vid of the main rock, cyano up in the top right of screen along the edge of the rock but the rest of the rock is looking good. A very light dusting of algae but nothing dramatic!

[youtube]fipS9orhSpg[/youtube]

And here is a FTS. Bit of cyano persisting down the left side on the sand.. One thing I can say for sure is that it's thinning!!! YEOW!!